Taylor-made moment: Father and sons competing in Rolex 24

This is a story about the ties that bind. Ricky and Jordan Taylor are in the family business. It involves crazy-quick reflexes while spinning around a road course in a car at average speeds of 130 mph.

Their dad, Wayne Taylor, thought he was done with all of that at the end of the 2006 season when he stepped away from driving full-time.

But stuff happens in life. Ricky and Jordan's professional driving careers blossomed in recent years. Max "The Ax" Angelelli — friend, business partner and former co-driver with Wayne Taylor — then thought it would be cool if he could hitch a ride with the boys during the Rolex 24 At Daytona. They needed a fourth driver.

Guess who?

"I'm scared to death. I just am," Wayne Taylor said over lunch recently. "I haven't driven a car in years."

They will start in the fourth row Saturday afternoon for the 24-hour grind featuring a mish-mash of 68 cars and four different classes. Fans can spot the Taylor gang in the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Chevrolet Corvette Dallara Daytona Prototype of Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR).

Their qualifying speed of 129.424 mph around the twisting 3.56-mile 12-turn superspeedway road circuit was good for seventh, placing them on the inside row.

" I think we'll be in great shape by race time," Ricky Taylor said.

Where they go from there is predicated on a lot of variables, of course. Things can go bump in the night at a moment's notice. But this isn't some whimsical ride for a family — consider Max part of that brood — smitten by a nostalgic experience.

They've got the creds to win this thing.

Wayne Taylor, now 57, is a three-time sports-car racing champion, a two-time Rolex 24 winner and a 24 Hours of Le Mans champion.

Angelelli and Wayne Taylor won the Rolex 24 together en route to capturing the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series championship in 2005.

Jordan, 22, won five races in his first full season in prototype competition, capturing the DP championship.

Ricky, 24, teamed with Angelelli for seven victories and 10 poles from 2010 through 2012, driving for WTR.

Wayne Taylor didn't see any of this coming. He allowed his sons to dabble in racing — they shared a go-kart for a while — but he didn't see much promise in that. Growing up in Apopka, Ricky and Jordan played mostly soccer, tennis and hockey.

"For the record, they were pretty useless at karting," Wayne Taylor said.

But things started to take a different turn in 2004 when Wayne retired for the first time.

"We wanted to learn more," Jordan said. "When we went to Skip Barber Racing School, that's when we really started using my dad and Max's knowledge because they could really help us."

The Taylor residence in Apopka turned into Racing Center 101. Angelelli, originally from Italy, became a semi-permanent houseguest at the Taylor home. He began gathering the boys in a classroom-like setting to go over the basics, using a big flip-board to get his points across.

"He drew pictures of corners [on the tracks] or maybe a shock and explain things," Jordan said. "Not just driving things but mechanical parts of the car, understanding how things work."

It leads to this. Wayne Taylor was a reluctant participant, but he eventually warmed to the idea of the foursome competing together. He officially flipped from ambivalence to all-in when he received an e-mail from fellow driver Craig Duerson: "Once a racer always a racer. You need to be driving with your kids."